“The mind has great creative power….Without the ability to ideate we would not have any of our arts, sciences, and other human achievements.”

–Devadatta Kali, Managing the Mind

“…[imagination] serves the purpose of creating abstract thoughts, which may eventually manifest in a practical way…or lead to a higher level of understanding beyond our limited intellect.”

–Nicolai Bachman, The Path of the Yoga Sutras

“Imagination uses thought to create nonexistent realities….Imagination is founded on immediate perceptions, on the contents of memory, and on their interaction. It is the origin of all artistic creation…Imagination helps create life, thus is indispensable to it. But it can also separate us from life.”

–Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga

“It is curious that the commentators do not direct specific attention to more common aspects of imaginative thought, such as daydreaming, fantasy, make believe, and wishful thinking, which actually occupy major portions of most people’s waking attention….they overlap with other vrttis, particularly the function of memory…and/or error, since they have no reality.”

–Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanji